Why IT planning is broken, and what to do about it

IT planning is broken. From the research I have participated in and the conversations I've had with people in the field, I can say that this is unambiguously true. The question is, should we care? Or is IT planning a quaint relic of a bygone era?

Thirty years ago, when I first entered the world of information technology, IT planning was all the rage. It appeared front and center on the pages of The Harvard Business Review. (See: Cyrus F. Gibson and Richard L. Nolan, "Managing the Four Stages of EDP Growth," Harvard Business Review [January-February 1974].) It was the topic at all the industry gatherings, and it was probably the defining skill that IT leaders had to master.

But the years have not been kind to this discipline. In 2010, only 40% of the organizations in the Global 2000 have prepared a pictorial description of where IT is going -- a one-page diagram that says, "We are here and are heading there." That means that 60% of the world's IT shops are essentially working without a map. And as I recently noted, the IT planning horizon at most IT shops does not exceed 18 months. Abysmally, the business community in approximately 75% of the organizations queried by the IT Leadership Academy does not feel that IT planning is effective.

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IT planning is broken. From the research I have participated in and the conversations I've had with people in the field, I can say that this is unambiguously true. The question is, should we care? Or is IT planning a quaint relic of a bygone era?

Thirty years ago, when I first entered the world of information technology, IT planning was all the rage. It appeared front and center on the pages of The Harvard Business Review. (See: Cyrus F. Gibson and Richard L. Nolan, "Managing the Four Stages of EDP Growth," Harvard Business Review [January-February 1974].) It was the topic at all the industry gatherings, and it was probably the defining skill that IT leaders had to master.

But the years have not been kind to this discipline. In 2010, only 40% of the organizations in the Global 2000 have prepared a pictorial description of where IT is going -- a one-page diagram that says, "We are here and are heading there." That means that 60% of the world's IT shops are essentially working without a map. And as I recently noted, the IT planning horizon at most IT shops does not exceed 18 months. Abysmally, the business community in approximately 75% of the organizations queried by the IT Leadership Academy does not feel that IT planning is effective.